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A Survey of Federal District Court Opinions: West Publishing Company Reports Allan D SMU Law Review Volume 20 | Issue 1 Article 4 1966 A Survey of Federal District Court Opinions: West Publishing Company Reports Allan D. Vestal Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/smulr Recommended Citation Allan D. Vestal, A Survey of Federal District Court Opinions: West Publishing Company Reports, 20 Sw L.J. 63 (1966) https://scholar.smu.edu/smulr/vol20/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in SMU Law Review by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. A SURVEY OF FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT OPINIONS: WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY REPORTS by Allan D. Vestal* "We must be candid in appraising the day-to-day operations of our legal institutions. We must be imaginative in constructing new solutions and determined to carry them through, whatever self- interested opposition may be encountered." Final Report of the Twenty-seventh American Assembly, April 29-May 2, 19651 I. ROLE OF FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS T is difficult to overestimate the role played by the courts in the creation and development of the law of the United States. Although some law is made by the various legislatures, much the greater share of law is judge-made. A primary purpose of the courts at the appel- late level is the creation of the law for the future, apart from the decision of the case then before the court.' A single case involves only a limited number of litigants and only a limited amount of money. The impact of a decision rendered, however, reaches far beyond the particular case and may be of vital importance to a great number of persons over a very long period of time. At the level of the trial court the future impact of a decision may not be quite as great. In the case of state trial courts the fact that the opinions are not generally reported' tends to minimize the law- making function of such courts. In the case of the federal district courts, however, two factors tend to emphasize the law-creating aspect of their decisions, apart from the deciding of specific cases. First, the courts are manned by an exceptionally able group of indi- * Professor of Law, University of Iowa; A.B., DePauw Univ.; LL.B., Yale Law School; Co-author, 1 MOORE, FEDERAL PRACTICE (2d ed. 1959); Editor, Supplement, MOORE, FED- ERAL PRACTICE (1957-61); Co-author, MOORE, FEDERAL PRACTICE (1962). The author wishes to express a special word of appreciation for the work done by Mr. David Cox, now a member of the Iowa bar, and Mr. John Coughenour and Mr. Norman McClaskey, seniors in the College of Law, who assisted in the tabulation of information. Moreover, this type of research requires major material support which was generously grant- ed by the University Computer Center and the Graduate College of the University of Iowa. a Taken from the report of the Twenty-seventh American Assembly held at Arden House, Harriman, New York on April 29-May 2, 1965. The topic under consideration was "The Courts, The Public and the Law Explosion." ' This is obviously only one of several reasons for appellate courts. See Vestal, Sua Sponte Consideration in Appellate Review, 27 FORDHAM L. REV. 477, 483-486 (1959). a Exceptions to this rule are found in numerous states, such as Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. PRICE & BITNER, EFFECTIVE LEGAL RESEARCH 387-409 (1953). SOUTHWESTERN LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 20:63 viduals, and secondly, the decisions of these courts have traditionally been collected in a series of reports and have been widely dissemina- ted.4 Although some persons question the value of the reports of fed- eral district court decisions,' the legal profession is accustomed to the extensive use of such decisions as an important element in the crea- tion of the law. Since these decisions are an important part of the growing corpus juris, it would seem to follow that each federal district court judge should contribute a share to the total body of the law. Each judge should, through his writings, take part in the ongoing development of the law. Superficial examination of the law being applied by the federal courts will reveal situations in which various courts and circuits have developed aberrational, tentative or deviational lines of authority.' Only when the differences are clearly revealed can the law develop soundly. Certainly it would be a mistake to have such controlling but conflicting lines of authority unrevealed to the legal profession gen- erally. Through the publishing of all opinions, in cases of this nature, the conflicts can be identified and resolved with the law the stronger for it. If the opinions of the district courts are to be reported, the growth and uniformity of the law demand that the courts assume their full obligations in reporting opinions in areas of the law where there is uncertainty or conflict. ' The series of reports including the decisions of the federal district courts are listed in PRICE & BITNER, EFFECTIVE LEGAL RESEARCH 384-86 (1953). The oldest of these go back to the end of the eighteenth century. 'At least one court of appeals judge no longer has the Federal Supplement in his library and more than one court of appeals judge has suggested that district court opinions not be published. 6 In certain situations the opinion of the district court is extremely important. A num- ber of circuits have adopted the position that on matters of state law the court of appeals will not overturn the decision of the trial judge unless convinced of error. Rudd-Melikian, Inc. v. Merritt, 282 F.2d 924 (6th Cir. 1960); Kansas City Operating Company v. Dur- wood, 278 F.2d 354 (8th Cir. 1960); Cranford v. Farnsworth & Chambers Co., 261 F.2d 8 (10th Cir. 1958); Citrigno v. Williams, 255 F.2d 675 (9th Cir. 1958). Examples of this come readily to mind. The attitude of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on the motion for a summary judgment is a classic. 6 MooRE, FEDERAL PRACTICE §56.04[1] and 56.11[3] (1965). This difficulty has been resolved by the amend- ment of rule 56(e) which became effective on July 1, 1963. See MOORE, FEDERAL PRACTICE § 56.01 [14] for advisory committee's note to amended subdivision. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit created a special rule in NLRB v. Tex-O- Kan Flour Mills Co., 122 F.2d 433 (5th Cir. 1941). This was applied time and time again by that court until the aberrational lines were terminated in NLRB v. Walton Mfg. Co., 369 U.S. 404 (1962). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has created a line of authority which is somewhat deviational concerning the review of discovery proceedings by the use of the pre- rogative writs. See Hartley Pen Co. v. United States District Court for the So. Dist. of Cal., Central Division, 287 F.2d 324 (9th Cir. 1961), noted in 75 HARv. L. REv. 632 (1962). Almost every practitioner will run across examples of such aberrational lines of authority in the practice in the federal courts. 1966] FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT OPINIONS Not every opinion has equal impact on the growth of the law. Some decisions are landmarks which vitally affect the law in a par- ticular area. Other opinions are of only minimal worth either be- cause they are merely cumulative or because of their quality. But all opinions reported, by the very fact of being written and reported, do contribute to the totality of the law. On the other hand, if a judge does not write opinions or does not have his opinions reported, he is not making any lasting contribution. Deciding cases without writing opinions may settle the pending controversy and so fulfill the first duty which a judge has, but this does not meet the second obligation, which is equally important, of adding to the corpus juris. A reported statement of the law is not required or even desirable in every case. In some cases the judge may feel, and rightly so, that there is no reason to write an opinion. Because of the nature of the problem, the existence of outstanding authority in the area, the press of work, or other reasons, the judge may decide that the results would not be worth the time spent. Generally, the appellate courts will not comment on the failure of the trial judge to express him- self. Occasionally, however, an appelate court will critically note the failure of a trial judge to explain his action. An example is Kent v. United States, wherein the District of Columbia Court of Appeals stated in a footnote, No opinion accompanied the decision. Although none is required by the statute, a useful purpose might be served in some cases at least by a discussion of the reasons motivating the determination. Unaided by such a discussion, our task remains the one of weighing the decision in the light of what the record discloses! The importance of the opinions of the district courts in assisting the courts of appeals can hardly be over-emphasized. Almost every circuit judge would, I imagine, acknowledge the assistance received. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for example, has adopted a policy of referring to and relying on a district court opinion when it covers the matter. As stated in Patrol Valve Co. v. Robertshaw- Fulton Controls Co.: It is not the policy or practice of this court, in reviewing cases on ap- peal where a district court has rendered a comprehensive opinion with which we find ourselves in full agreement, to rewrite such an opinion and, in a sense, to deprive the trial court of the credit of its careful consideration of the issues and arguments, and complete determination of the clause.
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